1921 Babe Ruth Game Used & Signed Bat, PSA/DNA GU 10....

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The Sultan swats fifty-nine to lead Yanks to first pennant!

1921 Babe Ruth Game Used & Signed Bat, PSA/DNA GU 10. While the common fan and collector has been rather reasonably conditioned to consider the 1927 season as the pinnacle of the career of our national pastime's greatest practitioner, a deeper dive into the numbers presents a strong case that the 1921 season is perhaps more deserving of that attribution. Consider the argument.

Let's remember that the transaction that cursed the Red Sox to eighty-six years of championship drought had been the boldest in the history of professional sports, a uniquely expensive gambit to reconfigure the pecking order of the American League. It was in 1921 that Ruth first led the New York Yankees to the pennant, beginning a span of four decades in which the franchise was never absent for more than four years from October baseball. Though Ruth would famously surpass his standing 1921 record of fifty-nine home runs in 1927, that earlier tally represented a considerably wider margin between first and second place, which Bob Meusel and Ken Williams shared in 1921 at twenty-four. In 1927, Lou Gehrig trailed Ruth's famed five dozen by just thirteen.

Ruth's tally of 457 total bases in 1921 outpaced Harry Heilmann's second-place effort by ninety-two, leaving a gap of a stunning 240 points between Ruth's .846 slugging average and Heilmann's .606. While Heilmann and Cobb both bested Ruth's .378 batting average, Ruth's supernatural power easily claimed the other portions of the Triple Crown, the aforementioned record fifty-nine homers joined by a dazzling collection of 168 runs batted in. Ruth's Wins Above Replacement was an outrageous 12.9, exactly six points better than Heilmann in second place. Many believe Ruth's injury in Game Two of the World Series was the factor that allowed the Giants to recover from Yankee victories in those first two games to take the championship by a margin of five games to three.

But, of course, any bat consecrated by the touch of the Sultan of Swat represents the pinnacle of desirability, and this "dash-dot-dash" Hillerich & Bradsby signature model R2 is the ultimate specimen thereof at a wrist-straining forty-one and a half ounces (41.5 oz.) packed into an even three feet (36") of glossy ash. The experts at PSA/DNA take care to note that the left-barrel contact area and cleat marks at upper barrel are key Ruth traits, as he was one of the very few hitters to adopt a label-down stance as seen in photography from his earliest days with the Red Sox to his final appearances with the Braves.

While these key Ruth traits and the perfect fidelity to ordering records provide virtually unimpeachable evidence of Ruth's ownership, the last speck of doubt is dismissed by a period inscription in 3/10 (average) in black fountain pen ink that reads, "To Gabe _____ From 'Babe' Ruth 9/__/21." The PSA/DNA letter believes the day of the month is the 22nd, which would find the bat's original owner about two weeks short of the first ever Subway Series. It's a phenomenally significant bat that finds the New York Yankees franchise on the brink of glorious destiny. LOA from PSA/DNA, GU 10. Full LOA from Beckett Authentication Services.